A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

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Title: A Study in Charlotte
Author: Brittany Cavallaro
Series: Charlotte Holmes #1
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: March 1, 2016
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Graham Halstead, Julia Whelan
Length: 9 hours and 7 minutes
Genres: Detective, Crime, Mystery, Retelling, Young Adult
Source: Libby
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Retellings Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

The first book in a witty, suspenseful new trilogy about a brilliant new crime-solving duo: the teen descendants of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. This clever page-turner will appeal to fans of Maureen Johnson and Ally Carter.

Jamie Watson has always been intrigued by Charlotte Holmes; after all, their great-great-great-grandfathers are one of the most infamous pairs in history. But the Holmes family has always been odd, and Charlotte is no exception. She’s inherited Sherlock’s volatility and some of his vices—and when Jamie and Charlotte end up at the same Connecticut boarding school, Charlotte makes it clear she’s not looking for friends.

But when a student they both have a history with dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.

My Review:

4 stars — This book is totally outside of what I normally read, so I think I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

I definitely enjoyed Graham Halstead as the voice of Jamie — his narration was solid, and I’ve enjoyed him in the past.  His pacing was great, his voices were solid, and I felt his emotions.  I will admit, I was surprised that it wasn’t dual POV…I always hate it when the narrator list is misleading.  Only the epilogue was in Charlotte’s POV, the rest was Jamie (as a warning to other readers).

Jamie was pretty adorable.  Uncertain, eager…he was a good foil for Charlotte.  And he was the perfect character to narrate the stories — because he’s the normal one.  Honestly, they both emulated a lot of the qualities that I think of with Sherlock and John (originals).  I enjoyed that.  They were still their own people, but the overarching impressions of those characters could be seen in both of our MCs.  As such, Charlotte was a bit harder to get to know, and I was a bit more reluctant in liking her.  But I think I did in the end.  I got enough glimpses of humanity from her, and I felt enough based on the things that she’s experienced in her young life, that I connected more than I expected to.  I wonder if part of the reason for that is that we see her through Jamie’s eyes.

I will admit, the drug stuff took me a bit by surprise.  It was kind of abstract in this one, and I wonder if they’ll deal with it in more depth in the next few books.  It definitely made this book more of a mature young adult story.  I suppose I shouldn’t have been completely surprised given what I know of Sherlock, but…I guess I wasn’t expecting what we got in this YA.

As for the mystery, I wasn’t very good at figuring it out!  There were certain points where they were looking beyond the current suspect when I was pretty sure they were still good for it, but I didn’t have the overall figured out.  I also suspected one side character of something, and I was vindicated when I was right (even though it wasn’t big mystery/murder stuff).

I found that while I enjoyed the story, I wasn’t as sucked in as I’ve been with other stories.  Hence why the rating isn’t higher.  I just wanted the pacing to be a bit faster at times, or I don’t know…something just didn’t completely capture my attention.  At the same time, I’m tagging the rest of the series at my library, cause I could see wanting to read more of these 2 misfits.  I think I also liked that this story is so different from what I normally read.